Message from the President

16 June 2017

Dear NASCE members,

As the incoming NASCE President (tenure: 2017-2019), my first task is to thank our outgoing president Dr. Robert Dores (tenure: 2015-2017) and the outgoing councillors: Drs. Vance Trudeau, Daniel Buchholz, Sook Chung, Andreas Heyland, Maricela Luna, Enrique Pedernera, and Aurea Orozco Rivas for their work, time and contributions in keeping our various societal functions going smoothly and successfully. In addition, on behalf of NASCE and our comparative endocrinology colleagues, I would like to thank Dr. Robert Dores for his service and contributions to our discipline in his capacity as one of the two Co-Editor-in-Chiefs for General and Comparative Endocrinology, the premier journal of our field, for the past 15 years. He has recently retired from being a Co-Editor-in-Chief but will continue to serve as an Associate/Managing Editor.
I would also like to congratulate Dr. Aurea Orozco Rivas (Mexico) on her election to Vicepresident/President Elect, and welcome our newly elected councillors:
Dr. James Carr (USA, councillor)
Dr. Valerie Langlois (Canada, re-elected councillor)
Dr. Christopher Martyniuk (USA, councillor)
Dr. Hamid Habibi (Canada, councillor)
Dr. Katie Gilmore (Canada, councillor)
Dr. Rodolfo Cardenas (Mexico, councillor)
Dr. Marta Romano (Mexico, councillor)

The ongoing council members (Drs. Carlos Arámburo, Pierre Deviche, Robert Dores, Steve Harvey, Jean-Paul Paluzzi, Yun-Bo Shi, Angela Lange, and Bob Denver) and I look forward to working with all of them in the coming years. Drs. James Carr, Jean-Paul Paluzzi and Yun-Bo Shi will also serve as chairs of the Development, Communications and Awards Committees, respectively. I would also like to express my gratitude to the other candidates for allowing their names to stand for election to council (Drs. Peggy Piga, Suraj Unniappan, Scott Kelly), as well as thank them in advance for their continual contribution to other aspects of NASCE activities.

The 4th Biennial NASCE scientific meeting was held jointly with the 18th International Congress of Comparative Endocrinology (ICCE) and the 9th International Symposium on Amphibian and Reptilian Endocrinology and Neurobiology (ISAREN) at Chateau Lake Louise (Canada) June 4-9, 2017 (see http://www.icce18.ca/images/Final_program_booklet_June_2.pdf for a link to the scientific program). This is the first time that the ICCE meeting series was held jointly with any other endocrinological societies and we are proud of the precedence that we have set. This successful joint venture drew over 330 participants from 31 countries and with over 90 student participants. North American participants (from Canada, USA, and Mexico) numbered over 175.
Of the total 31 student travel awards given out at the 18th ICCE, 18 awards came from NASCE funds and were awarded to NASCE student members. Two hotel supplement awards were also given to NASCE student members directly from NASCE. In addition to the NASCE President’s Symposium – Recent Progress in Cartilaginous Fish Endocrinology, and the two Gorbman-Bern Lecture awardees (Lecturer: Dr. Bob Denver; New Investigator: Dr. Valerie Langlois), many of our NASCE members also featured prominently at this meeting: Dr. Stacia Sower was the current winner of the Bargmann-Scharrer Lectureship (awarded by the International Federation of Comparative Endocrinological Societies, IFCES, for life-time contribution to neuroendocrinology), at least 12 of the 30 State-of-the-Art lectures were given by NASCE members, and 13 of 21 symposia were organized/co-organized by NASCE members. The recognition by peers of their scientific contributions is to be congratulated and NASCE is proud of their achievements.

We are happy to announce that the 5th Biennial NASCE Meeting will be held in May 2019 at the University of Florida in Gainesville, “home of the gators”! On behalf of Dr. Christopher Martyniuk and his Local Organizing Committee, I invite you to attend and present your exciting work there. We look forward to your active participation to make it another successful meeting. Look for updates and announcements concerning this meeting on the NASCE web-site.

Your society has been active in promoting collaborations among international societies in comparative endocrinology and related fields. For the third time, ISAREN will also hold their meeting jointly with the 2019 NASCE meeting; we are happy to see the collaboration between our two societies continues. A proposal by Dr. Robert Dores (NASCE past-president and IFCES council member) to IFCES council that each of contributing societies of IFCES contribute a symposium at the ICCE meetings starting at the 19th ICCE meeting in Sendai, Japan received unanimous acceptance at IFCES council. NASCE is committed to support a symposium at the Sendai meeting and at subsequent ICCE meetings. I am confident that these efforts will not only further the science within our field of interest for NASCE members, but also internationally.

For continual success and for NASCE to fulfill its commitments and mandates, NASCE needs your continual support, both financially and scientifically. Since the 4th Biennial NASCE meeting was held jointly with the ICCE, NASCE membership fees for 2017-2019 were not collected through conference registration. Don’t forget to renew your 2017-2019 membership via the NASCE web-site (http://nasce-snaec.com/) if you have not done so. If you are in doubt of your membership status, please email our secretary Dr. Angela Lange (angela.lange@utoronto.ca) and we can check for you. The membership fees collected is vital to NASCE’s ability to fund student travel awards and trainee research awards, as well as the success of the upcoming Florida NASCE meeting and to meet our obligations to IFCES as a contributing society. Along this vein, I also urge you to encourage your colleagues and/or trainees to become or stay as an active member of NASCE; please note only active members are eligible for NASCE travel/research awards.